Pretense

CHAPTER 1: Life As They Know It

Harry was on a mission. A mission of utmost importance. His job was to obtain 'the package' as quickly as possible. It was a matter of life and death. His death. The only way to guarantee his survival was to follow orders quickly and efficiently.

"Hey! Where's my ice cream?"

Harry sighed. She was so impatient. She was always wanting everything here, now. He was surprised her last boyfriend had survived this long. Three months can be a long time.

"Hold on. Give me a chance, eh?"

"I'm sorry, but I happen to need ice cream. Now. And it better be triple chocolate fudge ice cream," she yelled to him from the lounge, heatedly.

Harry paused in the doorway and watched as the beautiful young heartbreaker flicked through the channels on the television. He smiled to himself as he realised that the woman sprawled across the sofa was the same previously shy girl who had idolised him in their younger years learning magic. She was the same quiet, reserved girl he had known throughout his time at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But she wasn't the same. She was so much more.

Instead of the girl he knew so vaguely, now sat on the couch was the woman he had come to count on as his best friend. The bright, funny, vivacious woman. She was full of life and exuded an energy that radiated from every fibre of her being.

He stood there for a moment pondering this when she noticed him staring and frowned at him. "What is it, Harry? You're stood there with that strange little smirk of yours. What's so funny? Have I got popcorn in my hair or something?"

Harry snapped out of his reverie, dropped onto the sofa with a thud and handed over the ice cream. "No popcorn. Your hair is fine," He cast her a sidelong glance as she pattered down her hair. "Well, as fine as your hair can get." A woeful look crossed her face, but when she noticed his teasing grin she elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Why, you little...! And you call yourself a friend!"

"Ah, shut up and eat that ice cream."

He watched her as she tasted the ice cream cautiously. As she took it into her mouth her eyes immediately closed and an expression of pure bliss spread across her face.

Harry sat mystified at how such a simple thing like ice cream could cause such euphoria. "I don't understand."

A look of disdain crossed her face as she opened her eyes mockingly. "Oh, Harry. This is hardly the time and place for me to give you that birds-and-the-bees talk."

"Shut up. What I meant was, why does ice cream give you so much pleasure? It's only ice cream after all." He watched her carefully as she considered his question.

"Well... Ice cream is not just a cold and astonishingly mind-blowingly gorgeous dessert but a state of mind. You see, ice cream equals luxury and luxury leads to relaxation. You grasp?"

"Erm... I suppose so..." Harry was utterly confused but continued to nod as she went on to list all the virtues of ice cream which included how it can lead to the solution to global warming and world peace.

She was always like this. Ask a simple question and BOOM! You get a three hour lecture on how women are the greater sex. However, he could never help but being totally enthralled as she animatedly discussed the issues of life and -as the case may be- ice cream. She was always so passionate when she talked about something she loved. She was just like her brother.

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    Ginny knew that Harry had no idea what she was rambling on about. She didn't mind. No one ever did. But the difference was that at least he pretended to be interested. Sometimes she got the strange sensation that Harry wasn't listening to her words but looking into her soul, into her very being. Ginny knew that he could see the person she had become. She frequently saw the admiration shining in his eyes... Anyway, he should respect her, having to put up with him. Harry Potter, the boy- no, the man- who lived. The most famous man in the entire wizarding world. The man who, despite all his pain and suffering, had become the international symbol of adoration. Do the magic community realise how all the attention can go to a man's head?

    But despite this Ginny knew the real Harry Potter. No she had not read one of those 'Inside The Mind Of The Boy Who Lived- The Real Harry Potter' books by famous wizarding biographer Flossy Flumpworth. But she knew Harry. She didn't need a book to tell her everything about him. She already knew everything about him. She knew he hated peas, she knew how his worst fear was fear itself and she knew how he felt responsible for her. He needn't be. She'd already got six brothers. The last thing that she wanted was another one.

    A sudden thought hit Ginny, making her stop talking and stare in horror at Harry. "Crap!" She grasped his arm tightly digging her nails into his skin. "Do not tell me that today is the twenty- second." She looked at him with pleading dark chocolate eyes the size of moons.

    "Er... Yeah, it is, I think," Seeing the distraught look on her face he added "Sorry."

    She jumped up and raced around the small but comfortable room, occasionally pausing to ferret around in a drawer.

    "What is it? Just realised you've got a hot date?" Harry grinned. "Oh, I know who it is- Colin Creevey? Didn't you have a thing going with him at one point? And you did bump into him the other day. What happened? Did he dazzle you with his... Wits?"

    Ginny paused to pull on her pumps and cast him a look full of outrage. "Colin Creevey? Well I did find that stupid camera kinda cool at one point but now I realise how so damn annoying that click clicking was all the time. Can you imagine that? All the time," she dashed into the bedroom to fix her makeup and shouted through the doorway, "Anyway, there is no hot date. It's Dad's birthday so we're all having a meal together, for a change. Time?" she demanded.

    "Seven forty-five."

    "My God! I'm late!" Harry sat, bemused at Ginny's panic,

watching her dash around the room. She suddenly stopped in front of him. "How do I look?"

    "Er... I'd lose the snot rag on the head and you'll look fine."

    "What? Jesus Christ!"

    Ginny raced into her bedroom, shut the door and within thirty seconds was out again, looking a different woman. Instead of the loose fitting sweatshirt and leggings she now wore a knee length black dress that skimmed her slender frame and flared out near the hem.

    "You like?" She twirled in front of him waiting for his opinion.

    "Yeah, Gin. I really like the way the dress, er... goes funny around the edges." Harry coughed and squirmed uncomfortably. He hated it when women asked how they looked. It didn't matter what answer you gave them you were always wrong. Fortunately, Ginny was in too much of a rush to pay attention.

    "Right then. Come on, Harry. Clear out."

    "What? You didn't even feed me!"

    "Harry, go. I have to go via floo powder and I don't want you hanging out here and messing my kitchen up like you did last time. You've got a home, a very lovely home to be exact, so why do you insist on coming to my extremely dingy flat at every available moment?" Ginny ushered him towards the front door, grabbed her bag and attempted to locate the floo powder.

    "Yes, but, usually you feed me!" Harry exclaimed, following her back into the living room.

She then slowed her steps, ignoring him, when something niggled at her from the back of her mind. "I have this strange feeling that I've forgotten something..."

    The realisation hit her like a ton of bricks when she noticed the empty dish on her polished antique table which was normally where Ginny's supply of floo powder lived.

    "Hey, you know I did bring my own popcorn so why can't I just... What is it, Gin?" Harry stared at the empty dish in confusion.

    Ginny just stood still in disbelief at her own forgetfulness. "I forgot to pick up more from Diagon Alley when I went this afternoon and I haven't got my apparating licence yet. What am I going to do, Harry?"

    She gazed up at him with that look that she knew got him every time. Her bottom lip trembled and her dusky eyes watered up in such desperation that he had no choice but to give in.

    "Okay. I'll take you. But I'm not coming in."

    Ginny's face broke out into a luminous smile that shone with a hundred times the wattage of the street lamps and lit up the whole road as well as Harry's heart.

    She threw her arms around him. "You're my hero!" She pulled away to look at him with a frown. "But you have to come in. They haven't seen you in ages."

    Seeing the expression on Harry's face Ginny realised how determined he was. And there was no budging him when he had made up his mind. He had a will of iron that was sometimes his downfall. "Okay, okay. You don't have to come in. I don't see what all the fuss is about, anyway."

    "Stop it or I won't take you. Now, lock up and we'll go."

    "What? I don't understand. I just need you to apparate me there."

    "No way, mon amie. If we do this, we do this in style."

    "Oh no, Harry! Not that thing you call a 'mean machine'..."

    "Shut up and get in the car or I'll change my mind," Harry warned Ginny as he walked to his car.

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"You are so rude!" Hermione rounded on Ron as she burst into the room. The walls were chipped where orange remnants still could be seen as a reminder of the days when life was simpler. It had all been about friends and Quidditch. For the love of the game. Now life was a hell of a lot more complicated. "Why do you do this all the time? I don't even know how you have any friends at all."

Ron blinked at her, pondering how to proceed without being turned to stone by the famous death stare. Never mind the Basilisk's deadly gaze, Hermione's glower was ten times as lethal. He decided to stick with the good old innocent 'huh?' That always worked. Didn't it?

"'Huh'? Is that it? Is that all you've got to say for yourself?" She backed him into the corner of his old bedroom. "You were disrespectful, contemptuous, impolite, rude, disrespectful-"

"You already said that one..." There it was. The death stare.

"-And generally acted like the mardy little boy you still are. You are twenty-six years old. Don't you think it's time you grew up and acted at least slightly responsibly? Now, what do you have to say for yourself?" Hermione folded her arms and watched him expectantly.

Ron thought for a second. He grinned. "You look beautiful when you're angry." Her frown deepened but he thought that he could detect a slight blush in her cheeks.

Her face hardened as she realised that he had nearly won her over. "Ron. Just tell me straight. What is your problem with Harry?"

"Harry." Ron's smile faded into a grimace. "So that's who this is about. What do you want me to say about the cradlesnatcher?"

"Ron, Ginny is only a year younger than us, remember. Anyway, there is nothing between them. There never has been. Well, I know that Ginny once had a crush on him, but that was over ten years ago and they're passed that now. Why did you have to ignore him? Did you see the look on his face? I'm sure he misses you," Hermione said in soothing tones as she sat him down on his bed, hoping to make him open up to her.

"Yeah, sure. Did you see the way he looked at her? He's just a pervert, lusting after girls like that. I mean, it's disgusting!" Ron jumped off the bed and began pacing the room.

Hermione sighed. "Ron, I really don't think it's like that with them."

"Yeah, yeah. But you didn't see him kiss her on the cheek did you? I'm sure he was trying to cop a feel!"

She slowly raised herself from the bed and headed towards the door. "I've had enough of this, Ron."

"But... But, you must have seen... It's just so obvious!" he shouted after her. "You don't understand! I heard him! I heard him say he was in love with her!"

He could hear Hermione's footsteps come to a halt at the top of the staircase. A few seconds later her head popped around the open door.

"Ron, stop talking out of your arse." With that she strode downstairs, away from an astonished Ron.

Little did Hermione know that Ron was telling the truth.

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